Kit and I went to Obara Mura today to view the fall foliage and make paper with some of Kit's students - Natsuyo and Natsuko. Natsuko's husband, Tomo, kindly drove. We left early this morning and headed to the mountains. The leaves were really beautiful, so, pardon the overkill. I took many more than I posted here. This tree is what Japan is famous for - the sakura - or cherry blossom. There are only a few places in Japan where this tree blooms in the fall/winter. Obara Mura is one of them. Anyway, enjoy the pics...

my travel companions for the day - kit, tomo, natsuyo, and natsuko 

obara 

fall foliage 

on the way to the arts and crafts center - where we made paper 

tomo-san, natsuyo, and kit concentrating on their paper-making. we had a full audience to the left of tomo-san. i felt like - "let's watch the gaijin make paper!!" 

men making large pieces of paper behind us 

natsuko and i made finger drawings on our paper. mine is on the left. this is the japanese word for sakura (cherry blossom) - or, it's supposed to be. i've never written it before, so, it probably looks pretty horrible to the japanese eye. 

kit, natsuyo, and tomo-san chose to make leaf paper 

kit and natsuko modeling their pretty aprons - just finished their masterpieces 

side of the road - on the way to the arts and crafts center 

paper for sale and on display - what's possible if you really are artistically inclined 

this is a type of stove used in the paper-making process. 

leaves leaves leaves - are you sick of them yet? too bad. 

we stopped to pick up some omiyage (gifts for work) and i couldn't help taking photos of this cute little girl and her grandmother 

really cheap ceramics at the market outside of city hall. 

gingko and cherry blossom trees 

natsuyo under the tree 

pretty colors 

peek-a-boo 

in front of the gingko and sakura trees 

upclose winter sakura 

Scavenger Hunt Hell

Sunday, I participated in a city-wide scavenger hunt in Nagoya. There were a lot of English teachers there, and other folks. Our team, "Zed's Dead", was made up of three Aeon teachers - Matthew, Michelle, and myself; and three Nova teachers - (2 aussies) Minna and Alex and a canadian - Rob. We traipsed all over Nagoya for four hours in search of three categories: Items, Information, and Photographs. I posted the photos below. I think we probably pissed off quite a few people in the process. I was expecting to see some news coverage: "Gaijin groups pillage Nagoya" or something similar.

Anyway, we came in Second Place - so close - only 3 points. We got a 2500 yen gift certificate - which helped pay for our dinner. So, all was not lost.

Well, enjoy the pics.

here's the first pic. right outside of shooters - we found a scooter to hijack. another team behind us is collaberating on their strategy.  

in front of the aztec calendar in central park in sakae. we were so dead by this time. i hadn't had any breakfast or lunch and we were just running all over nagoya. we were all a bit testy at this point too 

wearing antlers in loft